Whatever it is about Newt Gingrich, South Carolina seems to love him. Gene Robinson of the Washington Post last night on our show:
I mean, what is it about Newt? It's the anger. It's the fact he is in everybody's face and Republican voters here are looking for somebody to be in Barack Obama's face the way Newt Gingrich is.And the way Mitt Romney struggles to be, you know, that little episode today, you know, going straight to North Korea. I mean, you don't go straight to North Korea when you're trying to argue economics with Occupy Wall Street. And so, it's part Mitt Romney. . . . You have to kind of look at all of this, $370,000, not a lot of money, Cayman Islands, gee, you know, who is this guy, and is he really going to have our interests at heart?
Our pal Steve Benen looks at the huge cheers Mr. Gingrich got in the debate last night and suggests:
Conservative voters hate the media, so Gingrich exploits that hatred. Conservative voters don't like feeling defensive about race and policy, so Gingrich tells them why they shouldn't. His debate performances are like dopamine for the right-wing soul.
It seems to be working. Mr. Gingrich now leads, narrowly, almost across the board. The vote's tomorrow.